Healthy Water Healthy Kids

Healthy and clean water means healthy kids. According to a 2010 study from the Public Health Institute’s California Environmental Health Tracking Program, over 1.2 million children across America have elevated levels of lead in their blood. Many of those children are being exposed to lead at school where the action level is 20 parts per billion (ppb) rather than the standard action level across the country which is 15 ppb.

Schools should be the safest environment for students to learn and develop. How are students supposed to concentrate on learning when they’re drinking poisoned water that reduces IQ and causes aggressive behaviors?

Students in West Virginia are fighting for their right to clean water in schools where the Principal checks the color of the water every morning. More often than not when the water is not clear the school puts plastic bags over all of the fountains. Students are also instructed to use sanitizer to wash hands after they use the bathrooms instead of the colored toxic water. The same scenario is also happening in Vermont and in states across the country.

Laws can be passed on a state and federal level that require schools to test their water for lead, inform parents and communities about their findings, and provide funds to filter water or replace piping to prevent future exposure. Laws like these can prevent harm. If we had mandatory testing of drinking water in schools maybe, just maybe, the Flint lead and water crisis would have been exposed earlier and exposure to lead would have been limited.

Water should be considered a human right, but children in this country are being forced to drink toxic water while they try to learn. Children are required to attend school, so shouldn’t schools be required to ensure that the water their students are drinking is healthy and safe.

Think of all of the testing children are required to endure, they have almost weekly subject exams and annual standardized exams in math, English, and science, but schools are not required to test drinking to make sure their students have safe water supply. No child should drink from a water fountain and wonder if they’re being poisoned. Our children deserve better from us, it is the country’s duty to protect and develop the next generation, but with the lack of water testing, far too often, we are poisoning them. America is failing our children.

January 16th, 2019|Comments Off on Advocates Raise U.S. Water Quality, Access and Pollution as a Civil Rights Issue with the UN

WASHINGTON - Food & Water Watch submitted a letter to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights outlining several troubling water issues in the United States as the U.S. government is up for review [...]